A Heaping Helping of Personality Adds a Missing Flavor to the ‘Vanilla’ Nets

Kevin Garnett, who was traded to the Nets this summer, was described as a class clown and a big brother by teammates.Credit
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Even stifled behind a cold-induced rasp, Kevin Garnett’s personality was irrepressible Monday, as bubbly, dynamic and intriguing as ever.

He razzed reporters for their questions during the Nets’ media day at Barclays Center and then offered them expressive answers. He sounded confident and vulnerable, open and oblique. He laughed and smiled and was charismatic. He glowered.

Jason Kidd, the first-year coach, raised eyebrows earlier this month when he asserted the team did not have an identity last season. Whatever character the group did have, Kidd said, was “just vanilla.”

Well, here is Garnett to change that.

“We’re here to get another ring,” Garnett said. “It’s the only reason we came to Brooklyn.” And when a reporter piped up to ask a new question, Garnett interjected, “the oooonly reason we came to Brooklyn,” inducing raucous laughter inside the room.

Garnett, 37, was traded to the Nets this summer, joining a glamorous package from the Boston Celtics that also included Paul Pierce and Jason Terry. His reluctance at first to waive his no-trade clause and to leave New England for New York has been well documented, and he made clear Monday that he was still getting used to living here.

It has become clear that Garnett, however he feels about a city, will emerge as an outsize presence from it. And though he may no longer be able to carry a team on his back, he may still provide its heartbeat.

Brook Lopez said seeing Garnett in the team weight room last week was “pretty surreal.” Joe Johnson said he was realizing that Garnett, for all his intensity, was “more of a class clown type of guy.” And Reggie Evans, who assumed a mentoring role last season, said Garnett would be an “even bigger, bigger big brother” to the team’s young players.

The coaching staff will feel Garnett’s big presence, too. Last week, Kidd and Garnett chatted about the possibility that he would not play back-to-back games during the season to preserve his legs. Asked on Monday about that talk, Garnett said, “It didn’t go too well.”

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Garnett said he fully understood Kidd’s position. But he would not apologize for his stubbornness.

“I just don’t want to be told anything,” Garnett said. “I hope that I’ve earned the right to have an opinion in something that I’m doing. But I think more importantly, seriously, from a chemistry standpoint, I think it’s important for me to be out with everybody.”

That chemistry will begin to take shape Tuesday when the Nets begin their five-day training camp at Duke in Durham, N.C. The players said Monday that the trip would give them valuable time to bond and blend, away from the New York news media.

According to a team spokesman, the Nets issued 150 credentials for Monday’s event to 60 organizations. It was a marked increase from last season, one attributable to Garnett, Pierce, and Andrei Kirilenko, a high-profile free-agent acquisition.

From the various news media came similar questions about the health of an aging team; the stars sharing shots and managing egos; and the team toughness or the lack thereof.

“If you look at Game 7, we kind of were soft — that’s the only way to put it,” point guard Deron Williams said, referring to the first-round playoff loss to the Chicago Bulls. “I don’t see that being a problem this year.”

And Garnett, a 15-time All-Star, will have everything to do with changing that. The Nets now possess an archetype — a caricature, even — for the intense, impassioned professional. And being traded, he admitted Monday, has given him a new competitive edge.

To a team that did not have an identity, he provides an oversize one.

REBOUNDS

Deron Williams (sprained ankle) will be on the court Tuesday but will take things slow. “I could probably go out and do everything,” he said Monday, “but if I tweak my ankle, if I have a setback, then that wouldn’t be good.” ... Nineteen players are expected to be at training camp. Forwards Gary Forbes and Chris Johnson and guards Jorge Gutierrez and Marko Jaric were signed in the past week. The Nets already had 15 players on guaranteed contracts, though, so the new players are unlikely to make the roster.

A version of this article appears in print on October 1, 2013, on Page B15 of the New York edition with the headline: A Heaping Helping of Personality Adds a Missing Flavor to the ‘Vanilla’ Nets. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe